Michael Fullan's insights on what it takes to make professional learning stick--in other words, Learning Forward's Implementation standard--have long helped leaders at the school and system level create change in ways that lead to better outcomes for students. In his full thought leader essay in "Reach the Highest Standard in Professional…

Learning teams must take many steps in making their time together meaningful and productive. Once teams know what they are setting out to accomplish through careful data analysis, their next step is to create a plan to guide their journey. Through this planning process, collaborative teams make clear their assumptions and beliefs about the work…

Every day, teachers and administrators come to work and do the best job they know how. In the book "School Systems That Learn" (Ash & D'Auria, 2013), the authors argue that most school systems, as they are currently designed, have reached or nearly reached the limits of their capacity and that systemic change is necessary to…

The idea of teacher leadership holds an immense and intuitive appeal. Most educators agree that teacher leaders are essential to fostering a climate of authentic and robust leadership and learning across a school. Teacher leadership is peer leading at its most authentic, demanding, and empowering. While the value of teacher leadership may be…

Teacher education and professional development prepare teachers with up-to-date knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for effective teaching. To sustain this, however, hinges on continued professional learning within schools. Research shows that establishing long-term conditions that allow teachers to learn continuously from one another…

As anyone in a partnership--a marriage, a business, a professional relationship--will attest, it takes hard work and energy, time and persistence, and reciprocal commitment to make a partnership successful. Writing from the perspective of an external partner, the authors explore lessons learned from eight years of working with public school…

When the author became principal of Acton Elementary School in Acton, Maine, in 2003, he spent the summer interviewing staff members. Staff in this small, rural elementary school overwhelmingly expressed a desire for opportunities to learn collaboratively. The teachers described a school culture where staff did not work together but instead worked…

Good teaching occurs when educators on teams are involved in a cycle in which they analyze data, determine student and adult learning goals based on that analysis, design joint lessons that use evidence-based strategies, have access to coaches for support in improving their classroom instruction, and then assess how their learning and teamwork…

Transforming an entire district from one that is satisfied with being academically good enough into one keenly focused on improved student performance requires overhaul that reaches from end to end, from building to building, from bottom to top. Leaders in Birdville Independent School District in Fort Worth, Texas, learned that applying five…

The author had been a high school English teacher for 15 years when her district transformed two traditional high schools into 10 small schools of choice. In this article, the author shares how the staff of one small school, with the help of professional development and a true sense of empowerment, created a small school culture and aligned the…

Professional development in Rockwood School District, a suburban school district outside St. Louis, Missouri, in 1997 was focused on individual teacher development rather than organizational development. Staff learning activities were fragmented. Teachers participated in a variety of unrelated topics the district offered from month to month. An…

Key elements in successful collaborative schools include focusing on staff involvement, collaborative school norms, collaborative practices and structures, and the principal's role. The article illustrates successful collaboration in one elementary school, noting it involved creating and sustaining a new culture within the school environment. (SM)

A small group of teachers at one Illinois high school is helping to effect and promote change. Through the Action Research Laboratory (ARL), teams of teachers conduct collaborative action research to improve classroom practices. Data from the first two years of the ARL indicate that teachers are eager to participate in, and have thrived in, their…

A school district planned and implemented site-based management. Schools developed ad hoc committees (AHCs) and created school management teams and plans. The AHCs effectively allowed school faculties to have input and involvement in developing management plans. The more they employed team building, the greater the impact on intended outcomes. (SM)

Professional learning is necessary for a school or district to achieve its goals. It's logical, then, that professional development plans should not exist separately from school improvement plans. To be comprehensive, professional development plans must be integrated with improvement plans to produce a systematic effort that is results-driven,…